Rail Travel: Ridiculously easy. With a rail pass, even more ridiculously easy. Everything is in English, on time, clean, orderly. There is a quick and accurate English online route planner site (see WiFi below). The position of the train doors are marked on the platform. Numerous boards display all the details you need to know. Outside of the Tokyo commuter system the trains have not been full at all. The trains themselves usually display each station, often in English (and Korean). The ticket guys seem to understand even our unusual route requests immediately and produce little (good for the pocket) tickets with train name, departure and arrival stations and times, often together with a printout of transfer times, platforms etc. Or, in 'remoter' areas such as we are now, handwritten notes with this helpful additional information. Buses and trams also run on time, have copious information displayed and have patient and helpful drivers, and passengers. Stations and platforms are loaded with packaged food and drink for the trip if you want it and in case you missed out the longer trips have a service cart that comes through the train.
WiFi: Everywhere and easily accessible in most train stations, cafes and restaurants and certainly in the hotels. Lots of free WiFi hot spots in general and a helpful app to fine them all. There are also some easy mobile WiFi options if you want to buy a temporary device for your travels
Helpfulness: Now we are into the really ridiculous part. Helpful doesn't do it. Our worst experiences in seeking help have resulted in people politely and patiently doing their best to help us and, generally, succeeding. Past that it is simply above and beyond. Like the courier girl in Tokyo who was asked by the guy we asked for directions and then got her phone out, found our destination and walked two blocks with us while leaving her courier motorbike running on the side of the road; or the information guy who tracked us down at a station to update the advice he had given us earlier; or the hotel check in lady in a hotel that was too expensive for us who found one that wasn't, phoned them and made a reservation etc.; or the bus passengers who, after I had chased a bus down (racing behind it along the street and with my lack on my back) and boarded it at the lights when I thought I had left my glasses on it, all started looking around their own seats for, whatever, when they realised I was looking for something, even though they were in a totally different part of the bus and had no idea what I was looking for. (My glasses weren't on the bus but in my pack).
Clean: Ridiculously clean. I've noticed that there are few public rubbish tins but still the place is virtually litter free, both in the city parts and the suburban or country parts. In towns it seems smoking in public is banned with designated smoking spots where smokers congregate to puff away urgently while looking at their phones. And if you need further evidence of cleanliness, then this => I saw an old woman walking her dog. She carried a plastic bag like we do. The dog stopped to poo, like dogs do (forgive pun please - sumimasen [see below]). Then, unlike us, the lady rushed up and placed the bag under the dog's butt to catch whatever came out. Lucky it was a small dog as she did not look that strong. This is the home of the Japanese fighting Tosa dogs down here in southern Shikoku, which are quite big, and so it could have been much worse.
Language: my father's experience in Japan would indicate that it is possible to get by with 3 words, left, right and straight ahead, all useful for a taxi. More fluent speakers such as myself can get by on about 8 words. If you chose the right ones you can combine them and, as long as you say them them with a sufficiently quizzical or other appropriate expression, you will elicit the required helpful result (see above). In fact, it is possible to get by in Japan with one word: sumimasen - meaning excuse me. Add quizzical expressions etc to this word with copious pointing at clues on maps or signs etc and chances are you will get a broken but adequate English response. And if you want have a crack at the language then this has to be the only country in the world where people routinely speak clearly and, relatively slowly. This is not just during announcements or at information kiosks. I have eavesdropped on the occasional intra-Jap (hand up if you cringed at 'Jap', I did and I wrote it) conversation and the language remains relatively clear. I am sure that there are enormous variations and dialects and accents, but public spoken Japanese is beginner friendly.
In fact, overall our travelling has all been so easy and straightforward that Rosemary and I joke about trying to make challenges for ourselves. I suggested getting up and leaving our passports behind but that was stupid as it would only result in at least one person pursuing us trying to restore them to us, probably along with an apology for disturbing us in the process.
But there is an exception. Toilets. Yes, that old bugbear, toilets in Asia. But not the usual problems, these are worse. Here, toilets are terrifying. They are, predominantly, western style and have more technology connected to them than you could reasonably expect when having a dump on the International Space Station. In addition to the seat (frequently warmed) and cistern they usually have an extended armrest type thing with an array of what can only be called irrigation options and, well, God knows what else. I'm too terrified to experiment. Public toilets frequently have hands free flushing where you wave your hand near a pad on the wall. (This caused a minor hiccup in a hotel room when I used the wall pad which turned out to be an alarm instead of the ordinary flush lever that this toilet had). Women's toilets can have a baby seat attached to the wall so the young one can watch mum pee (I know this directly having been encouraged into the ladies to look by a very impressed and socially indifferent mother of my own). Some toilets also begin a trickle flush when you sit down, presumably to avoid the humiliation of another human being discovering that you make noise when you pee. One particularly alarming occasion involved a toilet whose lid slowly gaped opened when you opened the door to the toilet, like a hungry Hippopotomus that was daring you to make waste in its mouth. In hotels there are an array of hand wash options in pump action bottles, or at least I thought there were until I realised I had been washing my hands with hair conditioner (no knots or tangles in the hair on the back of my hands!)
WiFi: Everywhere and easily accessible in most train stations, cafes and restaurants and certainly in the hotels. Lots of free WiFi hot spots in general and a helpful app to fine them all. There are also some easy mobile WiFi options if you want to buy a temporary device for your travels
Helpfulness: Now we are into the really ridiculous part. Helpful doesn't do it. Our worst experiences in seeking help have resulted in people politely and patiently doing their best to help us and, generally, succeeding. Past that it is simply above and beyond. Like the courier girl in Tokyo who was asked by the guy we asked for directions and then got her phone out, found our destination and walked two blocks with us while leaving her courier motorbike running on the side of the road; or the information guy who tracked us down at a station to update the advice he had given us earlier; or the hotel check in lady in a hotel that was too expensive for us who found one that wasn't, phoned them and made a reservation etc.; or the bus passengers who, after I had chased a bus down (racing behind it along the street and with my lack on my back) and boarded it at the lights when I thought I had left my glasses on it, all started looking around their own seats for, whatever, when they realised I was looking for something, even though they were in a totally different part of the bus and had no idea what I was looking for. (My glasses weren't on the bus but in my pack).
Clean: Ridiculously clean. I've noticed that there are few public rubbish tins but still the place is virtually litter free, both in the city parts and the suburban or country parts. In towns it seems smoking in public is banned with designated smoking spots where smokers congregate to puff away urgently while looking at their phones. And if you need further evidence of cleanliness, then this => I saw an old woman walking her dog. She carried a plastic bag like we do. The dog stopped to poo, like dogs do (forgive pun please - sumimasen [see below]). Then, unlike us, the lady rushed up and placed the bag under the dog's butt to catch whatever came out. Lucky it was a small dog as she did not look that strong. This is the home of the Japanese fighting Tosa dogs down here in southern Shikoku, which are quite big, and so it could have been much worse.
Language: my father's experience in Japan would indicate that it is possible to get by with 3 words, left, right and straight ahead, all useful for a taxi. More fluent speakers such as myself can get by on about 8 words. If you chose the right ones you can combine them and, as long as you say them them with a sufficiently quizzical or other appropriate expression, you will elicit the required helpful result (see above). In fact, it is possible to get by in Japan with one word: sumimasen - meaning excuse me. Add quizzical expressions etc to this word with copious pointing at clues on maps or signs etc and chances are you will get a broken but adequate English response. And if you want have a crack at the language then this has to be the only country in the world where people routinely speak clearly and, relatively slowly. This is not just during announcements or at information kiosks. I have eavesdropped on the occasional intra-Jap (hand up if you cringed at 'Jap', I did and I wrote it) conversation and the language remains relatively clear. I am sure that there are enormous variations and dialects and accents, but public spoken Japanese is beginner friendly.
In fact, overall our travelling has all been so easy and straightforward that Rosemary and I joke about trying to make challenges for ourselves. I suggested getting up and leaving our passports behind but that was stupid as it would only result in at least one person pursuing us trying to restore them to us, probably along with an apology for disturbing us in the process.
But there is an exception. Toilets. Yes, that old bugbear, toilets in Asia. But not the usual problems, these are worse. Here, toilets are terrifying. They are, predominantly, western style and have more technology connected to them than you could reasonably expect when having a dump on the International Space Station. In addition to the seat (frequently warmed) and cistern they usually have an extended armrest type thing with an array of what can only be called irrigation options and, well, God knows what else. I'm too terrified to experiment. Public toilets frequently have hands free flushing where you wave your hand near a pad on the wall. (This caused a minor hiccup in a hotel room when I used the wall pad which turned out to be an alarm instead of the ordinary flush lever that this toilet had). Women's toilets can have a baby seat attached to the wall so the young one can watch mum pee (I know this directly having been encouraged into the ladies to look by a very impressed and socially indifferent mother of my own). Some toilets also begin a trickle flush when you sit down, presumably to avoid the humiliation of another human being discovering that you make noise when you pee. One particularly alarming occasion involved a toilet whose lid slowly gaped opened when you opened the door to the toilet, like a hungry Hippopotomus that was daring you to make waste in its mouth. In hotels there are an array of hand wash options in pump action bottles, or at least I thought there were until I realised I had been washing my hands with hair conditioner (no knots or tangles in the hair on the back of my hands!)
I found that as the young people don't speak the full sentences that we learned that I could understand them (some of the time).
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